I have a venerable old Linhof Twinshank, big & heavy, decades old, still works great. Last year I bought a diminutive Heipi travel tripod, very handy. Recently I bought a 3LT Winston 2, a deal that was too good to miss. I have now added a Levelhed and a quick-release. A la prochaine !
Thank you for the review. It great to see your experience was similar to mine. I use the albert 2.0 with a Airhed Vu. I love how little effort is required to lock the ball head. I typically only extend 4 leg sections and keep the centre column collapsed. In this configuration I never have any concerns with the stability of Nikon D5.
Rarely use a tripod for wildlife photos. Not often enough time unless in a hide. But for video is another matter entirely. I use a fluid head so not sure how smooth the pan on this unit would be. Looks like a good adaptable unit and not too large or heavy 😊🥰 I use a Manfrotto tripod which can take either the Fluid Head or the Photo Head on the ball cup. Downside is the weight but very stable.
Thank you Emilie for your review of the TLT tripod…I wish I had known about this tripod before buying three other tripods which don’t have such great flexibility. I think I’m going to sell two of them and try to buy this one…always on the hunt for a better tripod Lol 😅
Glad it was helpful! Photographers are always looking for the perfect bag and tripod I feel ahah. I ended up selling some tripods too after I got Albert.
Great review! I currently use the Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ 263AB and have for the past 4 years. It is a quality product that I am happy with but seeing all the features of this Three Legged Thing makes me wonder if I'm due for an upgrade. The center column does not detach on mine nor do the individual leg segments and I am sure there is sand trapped in mine. Also one of the legs slips even when in the locked position.
Knowing that one tripod is never going to do everything, so I set out in search of a “system” tripod. Building a system is simple, but none of the tripod companies have figured that out yet. All they need to do is stick to standards for part. 3LT got a few things right, like using a 3/8” stud for the the head, the leg attachments and the feet. But having 3 monopods (really?) and short table top legs was as far as they got. I’m not paid by LeoFoto, but I’m gonna use their product as an example, because the accidentally stuck to standards. Their carbon tubes go (in diameter) 40mm, 36mm, 32mm, 28mm, 25mm, 22mm, 19mm, 16mm. Tripods, monopods, mountain series, travel series… You can take the lower sections of the legs off a 284 (28mm upper leg, 4 leg sections), add them to the bottom of a 364 (36mm upper leg, 4 sections) and you have an 8’ tripod. When there’s 200 people in front of you holding up their phones, an 8’ tripod is a wonderful thing… The challenge that I often run into is the need for different length legs (which 3LT’s detachable legs would solve, but they didn’t get that far). Shooting over a fence is the most common case. What you want are two really long legs and one really short one with a 3/8” thread mount. Mount a mini ball head on that and a clamp instead of the arca Swiss mount. Mount the clamp to the top rail of the fence (the mini ball head make this easy), extend the other two legs to the ground. Your camera is now stable and above the level of the fence, so you have angle of view. What the world hasn’t figured out is that if you have 3 designers, each in their own cubicle doing their own thing, their end products twice as expensive over time. This is why you have a drawer full of phone chargers. You are absolutely correct in that a tripod system would be a wonderful thing because the versatility of the system would expand as needed without having to ditch the whole system. That means that designers would have to collaborate.
I have a venerable old Linhof Twinshank, big & heavy, decades old, still works great. Last year I bought a diminutive Heipi travel tripod, very handy. Recently I bought a 3LT Winston 2, a deal that was too good to miss. I have now added a Levelhed and a quick-release. A la prochaine !
Thank you for the review. It great to see your experience was similar to mine. I use the albert 2.0 with a Airhed Vu. I love how little effort is required to lock the ball head. I typically only extend 4 leg sections and keep the centre column collapsed. In this configuration I never have any concerns with the stability of Nikon D5.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
Rarely use a tripod for wildlife photos. Not often enough time unless in a hide. But for video is another matter entirely. I use a fluid head so not sure how smooth the pan on this unit would be. Looks like a good adaptable unit and not too large or heavy 😊🥰 I use a Manfrotto tripod which can take either the Fluid Head or the Photo Head on the ball cup. Downside is the weight but very stable.
I bought a 3LT Billy 2.0 tripod and feel the same as you. Excellent engineering.
Yes the engineering is just out of this world! So well thought of!
❤I love video tripod looks great
Hello Emilie can you tell me how to keep the central column still while panning from the ball please?
Thank you Emilie for your review of the TLT tripod…I wish I had known about this tripod before buying three other tripods which don’t have such great flexibility. I think I’m going to sell two of them and try to buy this one…always on the hunt for a better tripod Lol 😅
Glad it was helpful! Photographers are always looking for the perfect bag and tripod I feel ahah. I ended up selling some tripods too after I got Albert.
Great review. Very convincing 😊
I like Ulanzi Coman Zero too mutch
Great review! I currently use the Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ 263AB and have for the past 4 years. It is a quality product that I am happy with but seeing all the features of this Three Legged Thing makes me wonder if I'm due for an upgrade. The center column does not detach on mine nor do the individual leg segments and I am sure there is sand trapped in mine. Also one of the legs slips even when in the locked position.
My question is what is the ball head like? Because the one I am using has put me off using ball heads.
I love this ballhead. Very easy to use. What was the problem with yours?
It drifts making it difficult to maintain composition@@EmilieT
Knowing that one tripod is never going to do everything, so I set out in search of a “system” tripod. Building a system is simple, but none of the tripod companies have figured that out yet. All they need to do is stick to standards for part. 3LT got a few things right, like using a 3/8” stud for the the head, the leg attachments and the feet. But having 3 monopods (really?) and short table top legs was as far as they got.
I’m not paid by LeoFoto, but I’m gonna use their product as an example, because the accidentally stuck to standards. Their carbon tubes go (in diameter) 40mm, 36mm, 32mm, 28mm, 25mm, 22mm, 19mm, 16mm. Tripods, monopods, mountain series, travel series… You can take the lower sections of the legs off a 284 (28mm upper leg, 4 leg sections), add them to the bottom of a 364 (36mm upper leg, 4 sections) and you have an 8’ tripod. When there’s 200 people in front of you holding up their phones, an 8’ tripod is a wonderful thing… The challenge that I often run into is the need for different length legs (which 3LT’s detachable legs would solve, but they didn’t get that far). Shooting over a fence is the most common case. What you want are two really long legs and one really short one with a 3/8” thread mount. Mount a mini ball head on that and a clamp instead of the arca Swiss mount. Mount the clamp to the top rail of the fence (the mini ball head make this easy), extend the other two legs to the ground. Your camera is now stable and above the level of the fence, so you have angle of view.
What the world hasn’t figured out is that if you have 3 designers, each in their own cubicle doing their own thing, their end products twice as expensive over time. This is why you have a drawer full of phone chargers. You are absolutely correct in that a tripod system would be a wonderful thing because the versatility of the system would expand as needed without having to ditch the whole system. That means that designers would have to collaborate.